Hawaii is sunny and warm year round, so whenever you decide to visit the islands, it is considered to be a good time. However, even warm year round, the weather here varies a bit during the seasons. Hawaii is generally very humid and humidity could be feel most during the month of October, right before the winter starts, so if you don’t like humidity, that’s not the time to plan a Hawaii vacation. The summer months May to August are usually busy on the islands. That’s the time when many tourists plan their Hawaii vacation. The most busy of all gets the island of Oahu and especially Waikiki. One evening in August while I was in Waikiki, I wanted to buy a bottle of water from an ABC... [Read more]
Hawaii’s rich culture and history can be felt not only at specific locations, but also in the names of those locations. For example, many streets in Hawaii are named after a famous warrior or significant person in Hawaii’s history. Other streets carry just a simple Hawaiian word in their name, and some street names even have surprising translations. Here is a small sample of Hawaii’s variety of street names: ‘A‘ahu (Miilani) – clothing Ahaiki (Pearl City) – small private gathering Ahekai (Waianae) – ocean breeze Ahi (Honolulu) – fire Alikao (Honolulu) – fireworks Ahonui (Honolulu) – suffering for long time Aimama Pl (Pearl City) – snack Aka (Kaneohe) – laughing ... [Read more]
As the website’s slogan says it, Yelp is where “real reviews from real people” are found. The website serves as a venue for sharing of experiences with local establishments and services. Individuals do not need to be industry experts to be able to place reviews on Yelp. Any registered user can rate an establishment or service and their reasons for giving it a high or low rating. As of February 2009, the number of reviews on Yelp has already reached 5 million. The website has a monthly average of 10.6 million visitors. Reviews are organized by cities and also by categories (e.g. museums, hotels, etc.). Yelp is more than a review site. It is a place where one can connect with people,... [Read more]
LinkedIn is the interconnections of business professionals from 200 countries and more than 170 industries around the world. Unlike other web-based social networks, LinkedIn is business-oriented. It is designed primarily for professional networking and now boasts more than 40 million members making it the largest network of professionals in the world. On LinkedIn, the people one has listed as contacts are called connections. One’s network of contacts may include direct connections, 2nd degree connections (connections added through direct connections) and 3rd degree connections (connections added through 2nd degree connections). In 2008, LinkedIn added new features such as the Amazon Reading... [Read more]
Twitter, created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, is a free social networking service with features that have been described as a cross between blogging and text messaging. Users are able to send and read posts known as tweets, which are text-based messages only. They can be sent to followers via the Twitter website or through SMS (subject to service provider fees). Unlike blogs, tweets are limited in length by up to 140 characters. This allows individuals to make quick and frequent updates about their daily lives. This is just perfect for people who want to blog, but who don’t have the time or don’t want to spend a lot time creating beautiful or lengthy posts. On Twitter, you can be very brief.... [Read more]
In all the years I have lived in Hawaii, one of my favorite places to go to has been Ala Moana Beach Park. Friday afternoon I went for a casual swim and on the way there I noticed that the Ala Wai Canal was unusually full, and when I got to the beach park, I saw something I had never seen before – there was water near the second lifeguard tower on a big part of the beach. Was that just the hide tide or the high waves? I don’t think so. What I think is that little by little Hawaii is being flooded because of global warming. Several months ago I read in the newspaper that according to some University of Hawaii researchers, Waikiki Beach along with its hotels, Ala Moana Park and Magic Island... [Read more]
Gay discrimination in the media in Hawaii - gays and lesbians don’t have a voice and are not properly represented About three weeks ago I wrote a letter to the editor to the Honolulu Advertiser. I commented the recent debate about same-sex marriage. Now that California, the second state in the United States, legalized it, it is again being debated more nationwide. My article was about what these gay marriages in California and other same-sex civil unions, such as the one in Hawaii, mean to same-sex binational couples in the United States, binational meaning one partner is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and the other one is from a foreign country. Since none of these gay marriages... [Read more]
You think Hawaii is always sunny and blue? Well, you are wrong. Hawaii can be pretty gray too, especially when under vog (volcanic smog). Occasionally, the volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii produces volcanic smog, which gets blown all the way to Oahu and Kauai. In days like that the air is very hazy and looks like there is dust all over in the sky. You cannot even see the mountains sometimes. To see what I mean, just scroll down and see the pictures I took last Friday on the campground at Malaekahana Bay, north of Laie. They are pretty gray, but that’s also Hawaii If you are from a cold state or country, looking at these pictures you may think it must be cold if it is so gray.... [Read more]
Hawaii is a very expensive place to live. Many come to Hawaii because they dream to live here, but sooner or later they are forced to leave because they can’t catch up with paying the bills. Many families have two or even more jobs, so they are able to cover the most necessary expenses. The middle class person makes around $15 an hour. Many jobs though are still in the range of $8.00 - $10.00. Thus for those people $15 an hour is a luxury. To give you an example, couple of days ago in the newspaper I saw an ad of a famous food retailer who offer job and the text add was saying something like “you can make up to $15 (including tips and gas coverage)”. So wow, I wonder if this is the maximum... [Read more]
When I first came to Hawaii in 2004, a plate of lunch was $5.50. Today the same plate of lunch is $8.90, which is $3.40 more. At the same time pay has not really gone up at all. But rent, on the contrary – it went up. Back in 2004, the average rate to rent a room was $500 to $600 per month, and the same room today is at least $800. Of course, it depends on the area where you want to rent, but the overall trend is that the prices go up. There are different reasons why the cost of living in Hawaii is so high, and all of these reasons are connected. Here are some of them: Everything in Hawaii (or almost everything) has to be imported from the U.S. mainland or other parts of the world. So because... [Read more]
Well, there are many different ways to get a job in Hawaii. For example, you can try to browse the job adds in the Honolulu Advertiser or Star Bulletin (the two daily local newspapers in Hawaii and both are among the most popular media resources). Or if you prefer you can try an employment agency. There are many local agencies that will be ready to help. However, you should be careful because some of the agencies will subtract a certain percentage from your paychecks as commission because they found you the job. Not all are like though. Look around and you will find agencies that will be willing to help you just for a fraction of your first month’s pay. The abovementioned methods are popular,... [Read more]
